Drivers could be feeling pain at the pump once again as gas prices take an upward trend as Israel’s war in Gaza is causing global chaos in the oil and gas industry.In response to the war, Houthi Militants in Yemen are attacking oil tankers traveling through the Red Sea, one of the worlds most essential shipping routes.Oil companies like Shell and BP have suspended shipping through the route.
Some industry experts believe this may cause gas prices in the U.S. to increase over the next six months to a year.
“The way gas price speculations go, we are going to see an increase pretty soon. I think Shell even said we can look forward to a 10-15% gas [price] increase as we’re going along.” Bob Badowski, Westminster College school of business chairman told 21 News.
This is because oil companies are now forced to find different trade routes to avoid any airstrikes.
Many oil and gas tankers are rerouting all the way around Africa, adding almost 10 days to their trips.
“They are trying to reroute ships which is costing them more money and ultimately that is going to then be passed to [consumers].” Badowski said.
However, an expert in the petroleum industry told 21 News that it is still uncertain if this disruption will affect U.S. gas prices because the majority of oil materials are locally sourced around the Americas.”We’re not as affected if tankers can’t go through the Red Sea because most of the oil and gas that we use in the U.S. is not coming from the Red Sea,” University of Cincinnati geosciences associate professor, Daniel Sturmer said.
Source: https://www.wfmj.com